Adria
Adria is the fictional country in which the Embassy Row series is set and is situated in Europe. It is a monarchy with a formal parliament. The capital city is Valancia and it was once ruled by the Ancient Romans and many other civilizations. The book suggests that Adria is likely in what is currently Croatia, with Valancia being in Dubrovnik. The reasoning for this is that Dubrovnik has a large wall around it, has a fort, has a large island off the coast called Lukrom and is located on some cliffs. There is also a picture of the city on Ally Carter's website. Another probable location for Adria is Greece, possibly in Corfu, which also has an island, a fort and cliffs. There is also a large royal palace, Achilleion. Grace also stated that Adria has the deepest shoreline in the Mediterranean Sea, which in real life is located off the coast of Greece. History The Romans were the first known people to claim the area, and built the tunnels beneath the city of Valancia. When the Byzantines took it from the Romans, the Turks later took the area from the Byzantines. The Mongol rule was next, after the Turkish rule, and then the Third Crusade came along. At the closing of the 1100's, a knight named Fredrick (later known as Fredrick the First,) sailed along with his fellow knights as they were leaving the Third Crusade. He managed to defeat the ruling people, who were at the time the Mongols. The wall of Valancia was put up along the coast to shield the city from any empire wanting to attack. A few generations later, the marriage between Fredrick the Third and Catalina, a child of a Spanish king, was short lived, but Catalina stayed as the queen in Adria for 6 decades. Centuries later, King Alexander the Second was the current king of Adria, and his wife was the queen. They had a couple of sons, the princes; and an infant daughter named Amelia, the princess. Adria was facing hardship at the time and the people living in Adria were suffering from hunger and a lack of water. Eventually, some of the people revolted and, with the help of some guards at the palace, murdered four of the five royals. Some stole from the palace and put the corpses in the windows. For a little bit, the uprising lasted before the raining outside drove the people to joy and they stopped fighting. The whole fight was called the War of the Fortnight. Though the ruling family had been killed, Alexander the Second's sibling became the king of Adria with a formal parliament. The royal house in the 21st century includes a King, Queen, and the Crown Prince as well as his wife, Princess Ann. The Crown Prince and Princess Ann had a son, who is the Prince. Valancia Valancia is in the shape of a circle with a large old wall around the outside that’s protected the city for over seven centuries. Under Valancia is a whole series of tunnels that stretch more than five hundred kilometres long and were built by the Romans. Embassy Row Embassy Row is on the outskirts of Valancia, parts of it right up against the outside wall. Originally, the land there was farmland to feed the population in the event of a siege but after some time, the wealthiest citizens of Valancia decided to build their mansions there instead. After WWI, the grand old mansions became the place where important Ambassadors made their homes. There are forty-seven embassies on Embassy Row, and these are the most important ones. The buildings there are old and beautiful. They have carved ceilings, pretty tiles, large halls, grand staircases, intricate sconces and parquet ballrooms. Embassy Row is paved in cobbles and lined with antique streetlamps lit with gas. At one end of the Row, there is a winding path that leads to the cliffs and an area where embassy kids have parties on special occasions, in secret and at night. This land used to be part of the Iranian embassy, but when they sold it back to Adria after ceasing all diplomatic relations with them, it became wild and overgrown. The old Iranian building however, still belongs to Iran and is strictly off limits to embassy children unless they want to "start World War Three". A kid on Embassy Row, Noah Estaban once tried to persuade the Israeli ambassador to buy it because it is the only embassy building that backs onto the beach and the sea. The US embassy is next to the Russian embassy, which is next to the Japanese embassy, which is next to the Italian embassy, which is next to the old Iranian embassy. This is one end of Embassy Row. Royal Family The Royal Family of Adria continues back almost a millennium, and there have been many monarchs. The knows rulers of Adria are as follows: * King Fredrick I * King Fredrick III * Queen Catalina * King Alexander II * King Alexander II wife * King Alexander's sons * Princess Amelia * King Alexander the II brother, another king * Former King of Adria * Current Crown Prince of Adria (Now the King as of book 3) * Current Princess of Adria, Ann * Current Crown Prince of Adria, Thomas Category:Locations